Last week Ajatuspaja e2:s ”Janottaako?” – campaign travelled to Jutajaiset Folk Music festival held in the capital of Lapland. We enjoyed the sunny weather and wonderful performances at Jutatori and chatted to the people of Rovaniemi about the importance of clean water.

When it comes to water, we Finns can consider ourselves very lucky. Not only do we have the cleanest water in the world, but it is also available for everyone regardless of class, race or income. For us accessing clean water is easy, we just need to open the nearest tap and out pours as much fresh, clean water as we like.  As access to clean water is considered self-evident, we often use a lot more than we actually need. At Jutatori many people were shocked to hear that an average Finn consumes 155 liters of water in a day, while an average person in sub-Saharan Africa only consumes 20-30 liters.

In developing countries water is a matter of life and death. Clean water is essential to life, yet nearly one billion people still lack access to it. Lack of access to safe water is the single biggest cause of disease in the world, killing an estimated 3, 5 million people every year. This means dirty water kills more people than any wars do. Lack of clean water is especially dangerous for children. A child dies every 20 seconds from a disease caused by contaminated water. Diarrhea, for us a common and easily treatable disease, is usually fatal for children in developing countries. Diarrhea caused by contaminated water kills more than a million children every year.

Lack of access to clean water is one of the biggest challenges faced by developing countries. Diseases and death caused by contaminated water not only ruin lives, but also put a huge burden on the countries economies and hinder economic development by reducing productivity and causing massive healthcare costs. 

Making clean water more accesible would prevent deaths and improve health of people, aswell as contribute to economic growth of developing countries. Therefore enabling access to clean water for everyone should be a top priority of donors and development planners.

Kati Moring

Source: Water.org

More information
Katariina Salmisalo, Project Concultant
Think tank e2